Measuring the market's beating heart?

Following Canalys' market size predictions for smart watches and activity bands, rival ABI Research is back in the news.

It's now pulling numbers about the market size for heart rate monitors out of the air (surely using complex estimative algorithms? - Ed).

It reckons 12 million devices with the functionality shipped in 2013.

This seems rather high, given that few of the wearable fitness devices in 2013 could directly measure heart rate. There's the Withings Pulse and Basis B1 watch, but the main type of devices that measure heart rate are the dedicated chest straps you get from the likes of Polar and Beurer.

Personally, I'd be surprised if 12 million of those were sold in 2013 - although I bought two during the period - and anyway, they're not really devices. More like peripherals.

"The market for wearable computing devices is driven by a growing range of wireless connected wearable sports, fitness and wellbeing devices," says Jonathan Collins, principal analyst at ABI Research.

"Heart rate and activity monitors will outpace shipments of smart watches and glasses for some years to come and they will also provide the essential foundation for the development of the broader wearable market."

That said, I think heart rate (like blood pressure) is an important element of the qualified self, even if I'm not convinced that devices like the Basis B1, Adidas miCoach Smart Run watch and forthcoming Atlas band are very accurate.

Of course, Apple might change all that...

D.I.Y. Data: Checking my vital signs

Following the self-destruction of my Up band, and general moaning about the lack of open source data, I've come up with a solution.

Well, a solution of sorts. I've started manually tracking myself.

Luckily, we had a blood pressure monitor in a back cupboard and that's the core of my new regime.

When I get up, I weight myself and check my blood pressure and heart rate. That's manually entered into a spreadsheet, and I drop the numbers into a simple graph (below).

It's not rocket science, but checking these vital signs at roughly the same time every day (always before eating) should provide consistent results.

More generally, checking our vital signs is a step beyond the sport and health trackers because you certainly can't take a blood pressure reading without a proper sleeve attachment. However, the monitors themselves aren't expensive and some manufacturers of other health equipment such as Beurer and Withings do sub-£30/$50 examples.

Equally, measuring your blood pressure is medically more important than factors such as heartrate, sleeping patterns or even weight. There's a reason they call high blood pressure the 'silent killer'.

Of course, it is related to metrics such as weight, diet and general fitness, but as you can see, at the start of the process, my blood pressure was rather high.

I've since made some lifestyle tweaks and am happy to see it dropping towards the standard '120 over 80', although I'm sure there's a large psychological element in this. My lifestyle changes are not so radical that it would have had this impact so quickly.

Anyhow, what's more significant for me is not just rely on what my sensors are recording. Sure, that's useful but just because we're measuring something doesn't mean it's important. 

Ahead of the pulse

Despite my note about the Danger of Data, there appears to be a strong move in the industry when it comes to heart monitoring.

As we all know, wearing a chest band is the best way (to-date) of measuring heart rate, but people don't like wearing these monitors or the additional cost.

Instead, they want heart monitor built into existing watch or bracelets. Indeed, Withings has a small pulse meter built into its Pulse pod tracker, although this isn't for tracking during exercise.

Perhaps the answer is new techniques for measuring heart rate. One interesting approach is the ability to measure the tiny amount of redding on the face using a web cam as each heart beat forces blood into the skin's capillaries

The face is useful in this regard because it has a large area and a large volume of blood flow. I don't think this sort of technique would work if integrated into a watch.

In that regard, I think Adidas is using more conventional monitoring in terms of its $399 miCoach Smart Run watch, which contains a heart rate monitor.

Yet now we hear that ex-Nokia outfit PulseOn has raised €1 million in VC funding to commercialise its optical heart rate monitor technology.

The race is certainly on...